Latest in Indie

The London-based production company is reuniting directors Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini and writer Jane English. The UK's first independent 3D film has done remarkably well, grossing $23 million worldwide so far after 3 weeks on release. CAA is screening the film to US buyers this week in Los Angeles. Indeed, the US…

UK investors tell me that film distributors not paying sales agents money owed is putting the whole indieprod business at risk. The problem has gotten worse over the last couple of years as the movie market has tightened. All financiers can do is pursue debtors expensively through the courts, with no certainty they…

Britain's biggest indie producer has established a new four-person unit identifying new business opportunities and acquisitions overseas. It has hired two executives from Discovery and Channel 4 respectively for the global business development division. Alden Mitchell, who will head the unit, has been hired from…

British indieTVproducers say that the BBC should pull out of the market for new US television shows. Buying new US shows such as the first season of Heroes drives up prices, they say. Indie producers' association Pact has criticised Auntie for outbidding Channel 4 for US series Harper's Island. Airing seasons of Mad…

BSkyB is lifting its stake in the UK's biggest indieTV producer from 13%, according to the Sunday Times. It is buying another 7% of Shine from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is selling its 21% stake in the TV programme maker. Sony is divesting the shareholding because its international TV arm is increasingly in…

Apparition owner Bill Pohlad went to the distribution company's Los Angeles offices to meet with staffers today, his first face-to-face meeting since Bob Berney’s stunning and abrupt resignation. Though he had already communicated to some of the staff through teleconference, I understand Pohlad's purpose was to look…

The fate of Apparition as a prestige picture distributor is uncertain following the exit of Bob Berney, and once again, indie filmmakers wait for somebody to step up with some good news for a change. How about singer Dave Matthews, who is tuning up his Art Takes Over Pictures banner to step it up as a…

UPDATE: The rumors keep flying about where Bob Berney will land. Deadline has already posted Team Harvey’s denial that the ex-Apparitions chief is headed to the Weinsteins. At least not yet. (Berney Exit Blindsides Apparition) Now the latest chatter is that Berney will rejoin Newmarket to reassemble the glory team…

UPDATE: Insiders are denying the rumor that Bob Berney is going to work with Harvey and Bob Weinstein. I’m told there haven’t been any talks — yet. Meanwhile, I’ve learned that Berney has the ability to take key staffers with him wherever he’s going.
EXCLUSIVE 5:30 PM: In a pre-Cannes bombshell, Bob Berney resigned…

EXCLUSIVE: Colin Farrell has stayed away from studio films in the last few years, but now has found two he can sink his teeth into. I’m told Farrell has just committed to next play a charismatic neighbor/vampire in Fright Night, the Craig Gillespie-directed DreamWorks remake of the 1985 thriller that will also star…

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment has named Matt Berenson to be president of production and promoted Mark Mikutowicz to creative executive. Berenson had been president of production at Principato-Young Entertainment for the past 18 months, and before that he was president of production at Carsey-Werner Films. SKE has been…

LOS ANGELES – April 15, 2010 – Openfilm , a fast-growing independent film community company that counts James Caan, Robert Duvall, Mark Rydell and Scott Caan as Advisory Board Members and shareholders, announced today that it will award $1 million to independent filmmakers in the next 20 months. One winning…